“Are you sure you’re on my card?” I turned to the man with a polite yet distant smile. I was still disoriented from the exchange with Angelo when the stranger pulled me against his hard body and pressed a possessive hand lower than socially acceptable on my back, a second from groping my butt.

“Answer me,” I hissed.

“My bid on your card was the highest,” he replied dryly.

“The bids are undisclosed. You don’t know how much other people have paid,” I kept my lips pursed to keep myself from yelling.

“I know it’s nowhere near the realm of what this dance is worth.”

Un-freaking-believable.

We began to waltz around the room as other couples were not only spinning and mingling but also stealing envious glances at us. Naked, raw ogles that told me that whomever the blonde he’d come to the masquerade with was, she wasn’t his wife. And that I might have been all the rage in The Outfit, but the rude man was in high demand, too.

I was stiff and cold in his arms, but he didn’t seem to notice—or mind. He knew how to waltz better than most men, but he was technical, and lacked warmth and Angelo’s playfulness.

“Nemesis.” He took me by surprise, his rapacious gaze stripping me bare. “Distributing glee and dealing misery. Seems at odds with the submissive girl who entertained Bishop and his horsey wife at the table.”

I choked on my own saliva. Did he just call the governor’s wife horsey? And me submissive? I looked away, ignoring the addictive scent of his cologne, and the way his marble body felt against mine.

“Nemesis is my spirit animal. She was the one to lure Narcissus to a pool where he saw his own reflection and died of vanity. Pride is a terrible illness.” I flashed him a taunting smirk.

“Some of us could use catching it.” He bared his straight white teeth.

“Arrogance is a disease. Compassion is the cure. Most gods didn’t like Nemesis, but that’s because she had a backbone.”

“Do you?” He arched a dark eyebrow.

“Do I…?” I blinked, the courteous grin on my face crumpling. He was even ruder when we were alone.

“Have a backbone,” he provided. He stared at me so boldly and intimately, it felt like he breathed fire into my soul. I wanted to step out of his touch and jump into a pool full of ice.

“Of course, I do,” I responded, my spine stiffening. “What’s with the manners? Were you raised by wild coyotes?”

“Give me an example,” he said, ignoring my quip. I was beginning to draw away from him, but he jerked me back into his arms. The glitzy ballroom distorted into a backdrop, and even though I was starting to notice that the man behind the demi-mask was unusually beautiful, the ugliness of his behavior was the only thing that stood out.

I am a warrior and a lady…and a sane person who can deal with this horrid man.

“I really like Angelo Bandini.” I dropped my voice, slicing my gaze from his eyes and toward the table where Angelo’s family had been seated. My father was sitting a few seats away, staring at us coldly, surrounded by Made Men who chatted away.

“And see, in my family, we have a tradition dating back ten generations. Prior to her wedding, a Rossi bride is to open a wooden chest—carved and made by a witch who lived in my ancestors’ Italian village—and read three notes written to her by the last Rossi girl to marry. It’s kind of a good luck charm mixed with a talisman and a bit of fortunetelling. I stole the chest tonight and opened one of the notes, all so I could rush fate. It said that tonight I was going to be kissed by the love of my life, and well…” I drew my lower lip into my mouth and sucked it, peering under my eyelashes at Angelo’s empty seat. The man stared at me stoically, as though I was a foreign film he couldn’t understand. “I’m going to kiss him tonight.”

“That’s your backbone?”

“When I have an ambition, I go for it.”

A conceited frown crinkled his mask, as if to say I was a complete and utter moron. I looked him straight in the eye. My father taught me that the best way to deal with men like him was to confront, not run. Because, this man? He’d chase.

Reviews by the
Wicked Reads Review Team

Veronica – ☆☆☆☆☆
Francesca is a 19-year-old mafia princess in Chicago. She goes to a ball expecting
to kiss her childhood crush Angelo, which will lead to them living happily ever
after. Enter 30-year-old Senator Wolfe Keaton, said kiss thief, who is also at
the ball and turns Francesca’s world upside down. And that is all I’m going to
say about the storyline because I don’t want to spoil it. You really need to
just read and experience this book.

The Kiss Thief is so decadent. I
started reading in the evening and before I knew it, the clock read 2am, way
past my bedtime. I rarely read past my bedtime, so it was exciting to get lost
in a story that my body clock took a back seat while I indulged in my reading.
That night, when I went to sleep and dreamed about Francesca, Wolfe, and
Angelo.

The open antagonism between Wolfe and Francesca is delicious. On the flip side,
I loved the way Angelo treated Francesca like she was a woman to be treasured.
They are two very different men with different things to offer. The Kiss Thief is an emotional rollercoaster
ride full of secrets, drama, romance, angst, and an ending I was secretly
hoping for but wasn’t sure I was going to get. What a fabulous story to start
2019 with. 5 brilliant stars.

L.J. Shen is an International #1
best-selling author of Contemporary Romance and New Adult novels. She lives in
Northern California with her husband, young son and chubby cat.

Before she’d settled down, L.J. (who thinks referring to herself in the third
person is really silly, by the way) traveled the world, and collected friends
from all across the globe. Friends who’d be happy to report that she is a
rubbish companion, always forgets peoples’ birthdays and never sends Christmas
cards.

She enjoys the simple things in life, like spending time with her family and
friends, reading, HBO, Netflix and internet-stalking Stephen James. She reads
between three to five books a week and firmly believes Crocs shoes and mullets
should be outlawed.

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